Your watercolor workspace is where you will create your masterpiece. A well-organized workspace setup will give you a clean place to start creating and have all of your essential watercolor supplies accessible.
From choosing the right location to setting up your paint area, you will be able to start getting those masterpieces from paint to paper to a framed piece of art on your wall!
Let’s talk about it!
Choosing the Right Location
Your watercolor workspace location should be somewhere where the magic of natural light and a comfy working space are available. Finding that ideal location for your watercolor creations isn’t just about having a spot to stash your brushes or paints, but about creating a vibe where your creativity is nurtured.
Natural light is a game changer for watercolor painting. It reveals the true colors of your palette, allowing you to see every hue exactly as they are. Not to add it’s easier on the eyes.
You may want to consider trying Plein-air painting for your watercolor workspace! Sitting outdoors, on a sunny day, can inspire you to create something beautiful!
If that is not possible, a nice sunny room or even a bright table lamp will suffice. The main point is light and as much of it as you can get. So find that sweet spot where the light hits just right and the watercolor workspace is so inviting that your creativity can’t help but flow freely.
Laurie’s Watercolor Tip:
When traveling, take your pan paints, small watercolor journal, and brushes with you. There is nothing like sitting on the deck of a cruise ship painting the sunset, or on a park bench painting the beautiful flowering trees in spring.
Essential Supplies For Your Watercolor Workspace
After you set up your watercolor workspace, it’s time to stock the essential watercolor supplies. To get started you just need the basics:
- Paintbrushes: #2 and #6 or #8 round brush
- 140 lb. cold pressed paper
- Pan paints
- 2 water containers ( 1 for clean and 1 for dirty)
- Paper Towels/clean cloth or rag
- Mixing palette
- Painter’s Tape
#2 and #6 or #8 round brushes are perfect for getting started. I chose round because the ends are pointy enough for detail and the belly is fat enough to hold water for washes and blending. The #2 is perfect for those more detailed lines.
Eventually, you will add to your paintbrush repertoire, but for getting started, these are perfect.
We are going with 140 lb. cold-pressed paper, because it is very common, affordable, and works well for beginners and pros alike. Selecting your watercolor paper doesn’t have to be difficult as I find Canson works very well. You can get it in various sizes and I typically choose the 9×11 because if I need to, I can cut it down in half or quarters, depending on what I am painting.
Pan paints are a great way to get started as they are easier to transport and work very well with layering and blending. Pan paints come in a variety of color themes and quantities. Select one that has primary colors in it, as you can mix colors to make more colors!
Two water containers. They can be any vessel of your choice, but I like to use clear glass. This way I can see if my dirty one is too muddy and needs changed. You will want one for clean water as well. The other reason is if I use a coffee mug or other container, I may or may not have thought it was my drink and had a sip or two of paint water.
Paper towels or clean cloths are a must. You will be blotting your brush several times as well as paper towels work great for lifting paint and also making clouds and a sun or moon! Just take a coin and wrap the paper towel over it and you can dot a perfect circle in your painting.
Mixing palette is only necessary if you aren’t using pan paints in a metal container as many have mixing wells built in. If you need a mixing palette, you can use an old enamelware tray or run to the $ store and they have some of the plastic ones there.
Painters Tape is essential in my book as I prefer to tape my paper down to either my desk, lightbox, or a cardboard backing to keep my paper in place as well as it helps with buckling if you use too much water.
The above items are my recommendations. There are a variety of other paints, papers and brushes you can purchase, but these are what I prefer working with and will work with on my tutorials.
I wrote a whole blog post on the watercolor supplies you need and you can check it out for more information.
Organizing Your Watercolor Workspace
Having an organized watercolor workspace will create a more inspiring atmosphere as well as keeping things efficient and also ease of access to your watercolor supplies.
Here are some watercolor supply storage ideas:
- A paintbrush holder. You can use a vase, a mug, an old tin can, or anything that will hold the brushes and keep them upright as well as fit comfortably inside. You will want to make sure wherever you store your paintbrush holder, the bristles are not touching anything that could damage or bend them.
- If you are not going to leave your watercolor supplies on your painting desk so to speak, you may want to have a box or container large enough to store your paper to keep it dust and damage free. I purchased an art utility cart when I first started, but now I use a rolling cart that looks like a suitcase on wheels but for art storage. I also use the art binders that have clear plastic sleeves in to store my finished artwork.
- If you are lucky enough to have cabinet space, that would be ideal to store and organize your art supplies.
No matter what you choose, make sure your paintbrushes are kept safe from harm, and your paper is stored in a protected area.
Setting Up Your Painting Area
You chose your ideal location, have your watercolor supplies, and are organized with your watercolor workspace. It’s time to set up you painting area.
You will want to protect the surface or whatever type of tabletop you are using. Painting can be messy. An old tablecloth will do or newspapers.
Now let’s talk about seating. You need to be comfortable! You also want to make sure you have an ergonomic art workspace. I prefer a chair with a back to it, so when I want to sit back and look at my painting, I can do so comfortably.
Now let’s get our watercolor paper set up to paint. There are a few possibilities here. As a newbie, you may want to trace a template.
You can either purchase a light box for tracing or use a sunny window and tape your paper on top of the paper you want to trace. Once you are finished with that, you can tape your paper to your surface of choice.
Don’t forget the water! Grab 2 glasses of clean cool water. While you are in the kitchen, grab those paper towels or clean cloths.
Where are your paints and brushes? Open up your paints and get your brush ready and your watercolor painting space is now ready!
Laurie’s Watercolor Tip:
If you don’t have a dedicated space for watercolor, that’s ok! I paint at my desk, kitchen table, sunroom, front porch, etc. It is not a requirement to have a studio so to speak.
Lighting for Your Painting Workspace
Remember when your mom said not to read in the dark or turn on a light, or it will hurt your eyes? Well, she wasn’t wrong. Eye strain is real and can cause damage. Strain and fatigue do not make for a comfortable watercolor workspace.
If you are lucky enough to have a sunny place to paint, kudos to you! With that said, make sure you don’t store your finished paintings in direct sunlight. It may cause fading and you don’t want that to happen.
I use a natural sunlight lamp for my painting space if I am not in the sunroom painting. Living in Florida, it is not always feasible to paint there as it can be humid or just overly hot. Humidity is not a friend to watercolor artists.
As mentioned earlier, Plein-air painting is so much fun! Sitting outdoors on a comfortable sunny day, with my paints is refreshing and inspiring. With all the natural elements around, you can paint so many different landscape scenes.
Water Management
Let’s talk H2O. Managing water in watercolor painting is a big deal. As I stated above, you want at least 2 water containers.
No matter what type of paint you use, pan or tube, you will need water to mix, blend, and wash. I also use a fine mist spray bottle to wet my pan paints as well as my paper if I am going to do a water wash for wet-on-wet.
Be prepared for spills and paint splatter so have some paper towels or cloths ready at hand. There are times when you take our brush and create paint splatters on your watercolor and that can be messy! You also need your paper towels or cloths to collect water or paint from your paintbrush when you have too much on your brush.
Now let’s talk about watercolor brush rinsing techniques. Before placing your brush in your paint, you need to dip it into your water and gently tap the side of the brush against your water container. Now if you are doing a water wash, load that baby up and put it straight to paper.
Keeping two water vessels on hand is the best practice. One is for cleaning your brush from color to color and the other is for that cleaned-off brush to rewet. Take note, you will need to change your water from time to time as that muddied water can affect the outcome of your painting.
Oh and try not to mistake it for your drinking water. Been there, done that, will probably do it again!
Laurie’s Watercolor Tip:
Under no circumstances let your paintbrushes sit in your water. You will ruin the bristles and the ferrule.
Creating an Inspirational Environment
What inspires you? For me, I love to listen to jazz instrumental music when I watercolor. The funny thing is I am a 70’s classic rock sort of girl, but for some reason, the jazz instrumental makes for an inspirational art workspace for me.
Personalizing your watercolor area with your personal artwork, or artwork of artists that inspire you is a great idea! Maybe even having plants or flowers or whatever inspires and relaxes you for your watercolor workspace.
So set the mood and tone in your workspace. Make it yours and own it. No matter what though, make sure you have plenty of light.
Other ideas for an inspirational watercolor workspace are:
- Throw pillows and a comfy chair for when you need to walk away from your painting.
- Keep distractions to a minimum. For example, if you know the kids are coming home in 20 minutes, bursting through the door, look for a stopping place so you are relaxed and not disturbed once they get home and can focus on them instead.
- Take a chair and table to your backyard and soak up the sunlight and natural elements.
- Essential oils in a diffuser to create a relaxing atmosphere as well as a tabletop fountain and that relaxing soothing music.
- If you are someone who likes noise and loud music – rock on! If that inspires you to create your masterpiece, that’s great!
No matter what you choose, just make sure it makes you feel comfortable and creative.
Maintenance and Cleanup
Cleaning your watercolor workspace is a must when finished. You need to take extra special care of those paintbrushes because you don’t want to ruin the bristles or the ferrule – which is where the brushes are housed and are attached to the handle. Once that ferrule is beginning to wear, bristles fall out and your brush is no longer functional.
- Your brushes need to be cleaned and dried and standing upright
- Your dirty water vessels need to be rinsed out and cleaned. Don’t be like me and leave them overnight and have a ring around the glass that was hard to clean. You aren’t going to reuse that water as you always want to start with fresh, clean water.
- Your paints. Now, if you are not finished with your piece and are using tube paints, no worries you can rehydrate them the next day. Pan paints I like to keep open until dried before closing the lid.
- Your watercolor painting. You need to let it air dry for at least 12-24 hours depending on how much paint you put on it. Put it is a safe place so kitty doesn’t walk all over it.
- The rest of your watercolor supplies should be put away so you will be able to find them when ready to paint again!
If you were to follow only one thing in this section, it would be TAKE CARE OF YOUR BRUSHES! Your messy room is yours, but those brushes can be an investment, and you need to protect that investment.
Now that you have your watercolor workspace set up, you are ready to roll!
Stay Colorful, Stay Creative, and HAVE FUN!
~Laurie
